Educational achievement remains a major public health crisis for black adolescents. Despite a reduction in racial gaps, black adolescents still experience disproportionate underachievement, higher retention and suspension rates, and a greater likelihood of attending resource poor or high poverty schools compared to many other racial or ethnic groups. These disparities place them at risk for lower quality of life, limited economic potential, and lower chances of functioning competently in a multifarious society. While some research details how psychosocial problems forecast negative educational trajectories for black adolescents, gaps remain in our understanding of factors that may mitigate the effect of psychosocial problems on youth educational success. Positive youth development and resiliency theories elucidate developmental assets as protective or promotive, contributing to better behavioral outcomes, reduced high-risk behaviors, and greater youth ability to achieve success in spite of adversity. Given the significance of youth-environment transactions, contextual factors (e.g., parent support) potentially underlie the development of assets. As well, higher levels of developmental assets have been linked to better educational outcomes and fewer psychosocial problems. To date, the majority of research has failed to acknowledge the significance of historical, cultural, and ethnic heritage for black adolescents' developmental outcomes and heterogeneity within samples of black youth. Concomitantly, there is scant research focused on gender and age differences in the positive youth development of black adolescents. This study uses nationally representative data from the National Survey of American Life-Adolescent (NSAL-A) to explore how developmental assets mediate and moderate associations between psychosocial problems and educational outcomes among African American and Caribbean black adolescents ages 13-17. The proposed research is a cost-effective method to test two aims consistent with NICHD's mission to ensure that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential and experience healthy and productive lives. Given established relations between psychosocial problems and educational outcomes, and between developmental assets and both psychosocial problems and educational success, study aims are: 1) Clarify the roles (i.e., mediating and/or moderating) that developmental assets have on the relation between psychosocial problems and educational outcomes, while examining influence of contextual factors on developmental assets; and 2) Examine if the influence of developmental assets on the relation between psychosocial problems and educational outcomes varies by cultural factors (ethnicity, racial socialization), gender, and age. Study findings will improve precision in identifying culturally relevant targets of interventions designed to promote better educational outcomes among black youth and address racial disparities in adolescent educational outcomes.